This invention pertains to seat belts as used in passenger vehicles, particularly as used to retain children.
Seat belts have been shown to have great utility in preventing injury to vehicle passengers. And belts have been designed, and are available, which are easily buckled and easily unbuckled, and which are effective to retain passengers, whether child or adult. Specific belts have also been designed, and are available, for use with children and for use with specially designed seats for children to sit in; and which combination of seats and restraining belts are effective to cushion the child and to restrain the child from leaving the seat, falling out of it, or being thrown from it.
But such cushioning and restraint are effective only so long as the restraining seat belt, or belts, remain buckled. If the seat belt is unbuckled, whether intentionally, or unintentionally, the protective capability of the belt, and any associated cushioning of the seat, is no longer of any great effect.
Since children, and particularly young children, do not like to be restrained, thre is considerable difficulty, from time to time, with children who learn to unbuckle their own, or a sibling's, seat belt. Since seat belts are designed in such a way that they are easy to unbuckle, a child, by the age of two years, for example, may have already learned how to unbuckle a seat belt. Once the belt is unbuckled, it is, of course, no longer of any benefit to the intended user. Even worse, if a child in an elevated seat, such as most special child's seats are, becomes unbuckled, the child may fall out of the seat and be injured, or scared by the fall.
A further problem is that an adult accompanying a child may be concerned about a child who unbuckles a seat belt, and may thus be distracted from driving, as in a car. Such distraction may result in an accident, which would usually happen while the child is unprotected. So not only does the child become unprotected, but the child's actions may indirectly lead to an accident happening while the child is thus unprotected.
There would thus be substantial benefit in a cover which fits over the release control on a seat belt buckle if the cover would prevent a child from unbuckling the buckle but would allow an adult to unbuckle it.
It is an object of the invention to provide covers for control mechanisms, which covers prevent activation of the control by a child but allow activation of the control by an adult.
It is another object to provide covers for seat belt buckle release controls.
It is a more specific object to provide seat belt buckle covers which prevent the buckle being unbuckled by a child but allow the buckle to be unbuckled by an adult.